An Italian court has, for the first time, legally recognized the status of three parents for a child, Corriere della Sera reports.
The Court of Appeal in the southern Italian city of Bari issued a landmark ruling officially acknowledging the “three-parent” status of a four-year-old boy born in Germany. The decision allows the child’s birth certificate to be registered with two fathers and one mother listed as legal parents.
Journalists noted that this is the first such case in Italian legal history. Corriere della Sera reported that the boy was born naturally in Germany. His biological father is married to a man who holds both Italian and German citizenship, while the child’s mother is described as a long-time friend of the couple.
Under German law, adoption within same-sex partnerships is permitted, and as a result, the second man was formally recognized as a legal parent. The couple subsequently sought to have this parental arrangement registered in the Italian region of Apulia, but local authorities rejected the request on suspicion of surrogacy, which is prohibited under Italian law.
However, the Bari Court of Appeal ruled that no evidence of surrogacy was found in the case. The judges also considered the fact that the biological mother did not object to the recognition of the second father.
By Vafa Guliyeva
